Threads are full processes in my mind, and tracks are the individual steps in a process. A thread is A->Z and a piece of track is A->B.
My train is short and fast but can only handle 3 pieces of track. I pick up the last piece to put down the next and if someone comes in with a tangential comment it can derail the whole thing.
This speed and memory limitation is why I infodump: I need to keep going fast to hold my overall target in mind and paint, but in doing so I risk losing the track I’m laying.
This can make me very easy to distract, in which case I will get flustered easily since I was already near memory overload, and it also makes me easy to manipulate if you know my prompts.
You can easily manipulate me back onto the track if I lose my way; just give me the last 2-3 things I said.
Since I am able to long-term pause a thread, what I will sometimes do is start multiple conversations before I forget the topic, then come back to them later after high-priority tasks are done.
This is also why I should never re-read texts from difficult times. Emotional decoupling is slow.
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